the living God will forgive you that ye did in ignorance. Wherefore, ye servants of God, arm
yourselves every one in your inner man with peace, patience, gentleness, faith, charity,
knowledge, wisdom, love of the brethren, hospitality, mercy, abstinence, chastity, kindness,
justice: then shall ye have for your guide everlastingly the first-begotten of all creation, and shall
have strength in peace with our Lord. And when they had heard these things of Paul, they
besought him to pray for them. And Paul lifted up his voice and said: O eternal God, God of the
heavens, God of unspeakable majesty (divinity), who hast stablished all things by thy word, who
hast bound upon all the world the chain of thy grace, Father of thine holy Son Jesus Christ, we
together pray thee through thy Son Jesus Christ, strengthen the souls which were before
unbelieving but now are faithful. Once I was a blasphemer, now I am blasphemed; once I was a
persecutor, now do I suffer persecution of others; once I was the enemy of Christ, now I pray that
I may be his friend: for I trust in his promise and in his mercy; I account myself faithful and that
I have received forgiveness of my former sins. Wherefore I exhort you also, brethren, to believe
in the Lord the Father Almighty, and to put all your trust in our Lord Jesus Christ his Son,
believing in him, and no man shall be able to uproot you from his promise. Bow your knees
therefore together and commend me unto the Lord, who am about to set forth unto another
nation, that his grace may go before me and dispose my journey aright, that he may receive his
vessels holy and believing, that they, giving thanks for my preaching of the word of the Lord,
may be well grounded in the faith. But the brethren wept long and prayed unto the Lord with
Paul, saying: Be thou, Lord Jesus Christ, with Paul and restore him unto us whole: for we know
our weakness which is in us even to this day.
III. And a great multitude of women were kneeling and praying and beseeching Paul; and they
kissed his feet and accompanied him unto the harbour. But Dionysius and Balbus, of Asia,
knights of Rome, and illustrious men, and a senator by name Demetrius abode by Paul on his
right hand and said: Paul, I would desire to leave the city if I were not a magistrate, that I might
not depart from thee. Also from Caesar's house Cleobius and Iphitus and Lysimachus and
Aristaeus and two matrons Berenice and Philostrate, with Narcissus the presbyter [after they had]
accompanied him to the harbour: but whereas a storm of the sea came on, he (Narcissus?) sent
the brethren back to Rome, that if any would, he might come down and hear Paul until he set
sail: and hearing that, the brethren went up unto the city. And when they told the brethren that
had remained in the city, and the report was spread abroad, some on beasts, and some on foot,
and others by way of the Tiber came down to the harbour, and were confirmed in the faith for
three days, and on the fourth day until the fifth hour, praying together with Paul, and making the
offering: and they put all that was needful on the ship and delivered him two young men,
believers, to sail with him, and bade him farewell in the Lord and returned to Rome.
There has been great dispute about these three chapters, whether they are not an excerpt from the
Acts of Paul, or whether they are an addition made by the writer of the Greek original of the
Vercelli Acts.
If they are from the Acts of Paul, it means that in those Acts Paul was represented as visiting
Rome twice, and going to Spain between the visits. Evidently, if this was so, he did not return
straight from Spain to Rome: at least the Coptic gives no indication that the prophecies of
Cleobius and Myrte were uttered in Spain.
The question is a difficult one. All allow that the writer of the Acts of Peter knew and used the
Acts of Paul: but there is strong opposition to the idea that Paul related two visits to Rome.
ron
(Ron)
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